By Cristina Marcos 12 October 2017 (The Hill) – Legislation to provide $36.5 billion in aid for communities affected by recent wildfires and hurricanes, including Puerto Rico, secured widespread support in the House on Thursday save for 69 Republicans. The votes in opposition included many members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who believe government […]
13 October 2017 (United Nations) – Sudden onset disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and tropical cyclones, are likely to displace nearly 14 million people worldwide each year, warns a United Nations-backed study released Friday – International Day for Disaster Reduction.“This is an important baseline against which we can measure progress in reducing disaster risk. […]
Philadelphia, PA, 12 October 2017 (Elsevier) – While strong seasonal hurricanes have devastated many of the Caribbean and Bahamian islands this year, geologic studies on several of these islands illustrate that more extreme conditions existed in the past. A new analysis published in Marine Geology shows that the limestone islands of the Bahamas and Bermuda […]
By Mike Carlowicz 27 September 2017 (NASA) – Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017, ravaging both urban and rural areas with category 4 winds and intense rainfall for several days. Most of the electric power grid and telecommunications network was knocked offline; towns both inland and at the coast were swamped […]
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Kristine Phillips, Joel Achenbach, and Herman Wong 12 October 2017 SANTA ROSA, California (The Washington Post) – The winds fanning wildfires in Northern California’s wine-country have calmed, for now, giving firefighters a badly needed break from the “red flag” conditions that have made this menacing arc of flames so deadly […]
WASHINGTON, 12 October 2017 (Associated Press) – President Donald Trump lashed out at hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico on Thursday, insisting that federal help will be limited and blaming the U.S. territory for its financial struggles. The broadside came as the House headed toward passage of a $36.5 billion disaster aid package, including assistance for Puerto Rico. […]
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní 11 October 2017LUQUILLO, Puerto Rico (The New York Times) – When you looked up, you could once see nothing but the lush, emerald canopy of tabonuco and sierra palm trees covering El Yunque National Forest. That was before Hurricane Maria obliterated the only tropical rain forest in the United States forest system. […]
By Sue Branford and Maurício Torres 11 October 2017 (Mongabay) – Figures from the Brazilian government’s INPE (National Institute of Space Research) show that 2017 is shaping up to be the worst year on record for forest fires: 208,278 were detected by 5 October 2017. Alberto Setzer, who runs INPE’s fire monitoring department, told Mongabay […]
By Phil Willon, Paige St. John, Louis Sahagun, Chris Megerian, and Alene Tchekmedyian 12 October 2017 SANTA ROSA, California (The Los Angeles Times) – The death toll rose to 23 from the rapidly spreading firestorm in California wine country as officials issued more evacuations Thursday morning across the region. With winds picking up, it was […]
By Eliza Barclay and Alexia Fernández Campbell 11 October 2017 (Vox) – Death tolls are the primary way we understand the impact of a disaster. And for nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, as a humanitarian crisis was intensifying, the death toll was frozen at 16.“Sixteen people certified,” Trump said on 3 […]
